Penn State student volunteers stay in State College during COVID-19 outbreak to help fire company

While businesses and institutions across Pennsylvania have temporarily closed to avoid spreading the new coronavirus, emergency services continue to operate, often under staffing and equipment shortages. That’s why some Penn State students have opted to stay in State College and help the Alpha Fire Company answer calls.

Every year, a group of students volunteer at the Alpha Fire Company through its volunteer firefighting program. This year, of the 30 student volunteers, all but seven have chosen to help the company in some way following Penn State’s announcement that it will conduct the rest of the semester online.

This year, 10-11 volunteers are in the resident fire program, which allows them to live at one of the three firehouses — the downtown borough station and the College and Patton township stations — without having to pay rent.

Christophe Cheroret, a grad student studying education at Penn State, is one of the volunteers with the resident fire program. He started volunteering at the Alpha Fire Company 2 1/2 years ago because he was looking for a chance to help the community.

Cheroret said one primary challenge of being a student volunteer is keeping on top of schoolwork.

“I devote more of my time to volunteering than I do to school,” Chevrolet said. “It’s very difficult for me to balance the abstract (nature) of schooling against the pragmatic nature of firefighting, but it’s a good opportunity to do something good while living rent-free.”

This year, the volunteer firefighting program has a roster of 94, including both students and community members. Steve Bair, the fire director of the Centre Region Council of Governments, said that because there’s not a fire science program at Penn State, the Alpha Fire volunteer program attracts people from all walks of life.

“Some of (the volunteers) are applying to different places in the fire service, but not all of them,” Bair said. “A lot of them are in the Penn State (Information Sciences and Technology) College, so they’re kind of all over the place in terms of their majors.”

Regardless of each student’s background, however, their decisions on whether to return following spring break were their own to make. Shawn Kauffman, the president of the Alpha Fire Company, said he and Bair didn’t have to “twist anybody’s arm” to come back.

“We made it clear we’re happy to have them, but they’re here because they want to be here,” Kauffman said.

In addition to cleaning the firehouse daily, Bair said the company has been providing meals and incorporating more trainings into the daily schedule in the hopes that it will incentivize volunteers to spend more time at the company. The volunteers can also use the firehouse’s internet connection and gym.

With roughly half of the community’s population out of town, Bair said the number of incidents a day has decreased in frequency to around one or two a day, as opposed to three to seven. But that doesn’t mean the members get any days off.

“The world keeps moving whether there’s coronavirus or not, so obviously the firehouse doesn’t really have the option to cease operations,” Bair said.

For Cheroret, originally from France, going home wasn’t an option, with the country on lockdown. He said that while he misses his family, it’s “very rewarding” to be able to help other people through volunteer firefighting.

“The service to the community still has to be assured,” Cheroret said. “If everyone leaves, who will assure it?”